An Accidental Mom

by Loree Lough

  The song ended, and she admitted she’d never have done anything of the kind. He brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss. “Thanks for the dance,” he whispered into her ear. “It was a real treat.”

  She grinned as he headed back to his table.

  Strange how, throughout the remainder of the reception, Max managed to find her, no matter what maid of honor duties she was performing. He was there when the best man gave a long-winded toast to the bride and groom. During the father-daughter dance, he surprised her by sliding an arm around her waist. He stood shoulder to shoulder with her, watching as Cammi and Reid cut the wedding cake. And when she joined the unmarried females to compete for the bridal bouquet, Max caught her eye from the other side of the dance floor.

  She’d only stepped into line to be a good sport…and because the photographer literally dragged her there. Lily had no intention of reaching up, of actually trying to catch the flowers. It was a silly superstition, a fun tradition, nothing more.

  Was she seeing things, or had Max mouthed Good luck! from his side of the floor? Lily never had time to answer, because on the bandleader’s count of three, she reached up without even thinking…and caught the bouquet in one hand.

  When her gaze met Max’s, he winked, gave her two thumbs up. It would be interesting to see the wedding album a week or two from now. Would the photograph of her catching the bouquet show a starry-eyed young woman in love…or the look of stunned disbelief she truly felt?

  No time to answer that question, either, for it was time to help the bride change into her going-away outfit. Lily had packed her sister’s suitcase, making sure to include the lovely white nightgown a neighbor had given Cammi at the bridal shower.

  How long before her dad and their longtime neighbor Nadine would announce their plans to wed? Lily wondered as she unfastened dozens of tiny satin-covered buttons on the back of Cammi’s dress. Had she been the only one who’d noticed the way they’d sat all through the reception, staring lovingly into one another’s eyes?

  She considered the question as the dwindling number of wedding guests gathered in the lobby of Amarillo’s Grand Hotel to say goodbye to Cammi and Reid. First thing in the morning, the couple would board a Florida-bound jetliner that would take them to Miami, and from there, they’d cruise the Caribbean. While the band packed up and the last well-wishers finished up the remaining hors d’oeuvres and pastries, Lily began loading beautifully wrapped presents onto a wheeled cart.

  A commotion in the lobby captured her attention. Lily ran toward the hotel’s main entrance and stood on tiptoe to see what all the ruckus was about. When she spotted Max on all fours beside his unconscious son, Lily elbowed through the crowd and knelt beside him.

  “What happened?”

  “Dunno,” he muttered. “He just…collapsed.”

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “Where’s your cell phone?”

  Hands trembling, he gave it to her. She flipped it open. “Is Dr. Prentice’s number programmed into this thing?”

  “No. Uh, I think so. Yeah, under P.”

  When the phone’s highlighter bar illuminated the doctor’s name, she pressed “Send” and got to her feet. “Don’t you worry, Max,” she said, grabbing her car keys from the tiny purse that matched her gown. “Meet me out front.” She held up two fingers. “Two minutes. I’ll call ahead to the E.R., tell them to expect us.”

  Bolting across the parking lot, Lily thanked God that the hospital was only a few blocks from the hotel. “Lord,” she said, revving the motor, “get us there fast, and watch over little Nate in the meantime.”

  She pictured the boy’s face…so much paler than when he’d fainted in his grandmother’s diner weeks ago. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. Had the patch Dr. Prentice placed over the hole in Nate’s heart come loose? The surgeon had said it could happen. Extremely unlikely, but possible.

  She parked beside the curb, ran around to the passenger’s side and flung open the door. Max held Nate close as he climbed into the bucket seat.

  And hadn’t Dr. Prentice said Nate could bleed to death if that should happen? Lily tried to look confident and smiled bravely as she clicked the seat belt into place across them.

  “We really have to stop meeting this way,” he said as she slid behind the steering wheel.

  Despite his half grin, she could see that Max was terrified, far more afraid this time than he’d been when they made their last trip to the E.R.

  No surprise, Lily thought, because Max had heard Dr. Prentice’s warning, too.

  “Sorry, Mr. Sheridan, but you’re not a compatible donor.”

  Max looked grim as the doctor added, “It’s fairly common—a parent having a different blood type than his child.”

  “Spare me the lesson in hematology, Doc. Just tell me what you’re gonna do to save my son.”

  Dr. Prentice took a deep breath, as if summoning patience. “We’re searching the blood bank now. Hard to find AB negative, and that multi-car pileup on the Interstate cost us our last unit of O positive. We’ve put the word out that we need donations. Might take a couple hours.”

  “He could bleed to death in a couple hours!” Max shouted. Hands fisted beside him, he said, “Where’s the nearest supply? I’ll drive there myself and get it, bring it back here!”

  “Max,” Lily said, laying a hand on his forearm, “I’m O positive. I’ll give Nate whatever he needs.”

  He looked at her, blinking as if she’d spoken in a foreign language. “You…you’d do that?”

  How could he even ask such a question! “Of course I will.” She faced Prentice. “What’s the procedure? You have to draw some blood, test it—then what?”

  The doctor patted her biceps and then headed down the hall. “Right this way,” he said, ushering her into an E.R. cubicle. “I’ll have a nurse get you started.”

  Lily was about to follow the surgeon when Max grabbed her hand. “I…I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “Have faith, Max—faith that everything is going to be all right,” she said, meaning it. “That’ll be thanks enough for me.”

  Max was young when his father died—barely sixteen.

  His dad had taught him how to parallel park, safely merge and change lanes on the Baltimore Beltway, but didn’t live to see his son get his driver’s license.

  He’d taught Max how to catch a pop-up fly ball, how to keep score during a football game, how to bait a fishing hook. But there’d been countless other lessons he’d learned at his father’s knee, too. To defend himself against the schoolyard bully…without becoming one himself. To behave like a gentleman, even if the girl he was with hadn’t earned it. To do his level best, no matter how menial or trivial the task.

  And the most important lesson of all—to stand up to the responsibilities and obligations that went hand in hand with being a man.

  He wanted to teach Nate those lessons, wanted to show his boy, by example, as his father had taught him, the fruits of hard work and determination.

  Would he get that chance?

  Or would God, in His so-called infinite wisdom, decide to take Nate, as He’d taken Max’s father, his brother, and in a roundabout way, Melissa.

  Icy fear pricked at his soul, chilled him to the bone. Max shivered unconsciously. The very thought of losing Nate made his heart beat like a parade drum, made his pulse pound like a jackhammer.

  He’d gladly gone to work every day, built a house in a safe Chicago suburb, where his kid could attend the best schools the state could offer. To accomplish all that, he’d had to give up his reckless bachelor ways—no more skydiving, no more river rafting. It hadn’t been a sacrifice. Quite the opposite! Max quickly adapted to fatherhood, and happily looked forward to every moment with his sweet-tempered little boy.

  They’d developed quite a bond, Max and his boy.

  To lose that now, to lose it ever…

  Hands linked behind his back, Max paced the hallway outside Nate’s E.R. cubicle. Pull yourself together, Sheridan
. You’re useless to him this way. Knuckling his eyes, he took a deep breath, then pushed through the curtains. “Hey, bud,” he said, feigning bravery as he kissed his son’s forehead. “How you feelin’?”

  Nate’s sleepy eyes fluttered open. “Better,” he rasped, one side of his mouth lifting in a weak grin.

  He hated seeing his boy this way—connected to machines and tubes and bags of glucose and medication. If he could lie there in Nate’s place, he’d do it in a minute. Had there ever been a time when he’d been this afraid? If there had, Max couldn’t remember it.

  “In no time at all, you’ll be better still.” Thanks in no small part to Lily, he admitted.

  The boy’s lower lip trembled slightly. “I’m scared, Dad.”

  Max eased his arms under the boy’s upper body, hugged him gingerly. “I know, pal, I know.” He kissed Nate’s temple. “But you’re gonna be okay.”

  “Why does it hurt so bad, Dad?”

  Slowly, he released Nate back onto the pillow. “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s what Dr. Prentice wants to find out.” He ruffled his son’s hair. “Any minute now, he’ll take you to the operating room, and before you know it—”

  “Will you be in there with me?”

  “No, that wouldn’t be safe.” He winked. “Germs, y’know.” He took Nate’s hand in his, stroked each small, dimpled finger. “I’ll be right outside, I promise.”

  Dr. Prentice burst into the cubicle and announced, “We’ll get that patch put back on your li’l ol’ heart in no time, kiddo.” He pinched Nate’s big toe, then added, “Can I borrow your dad for a minute?”

  When the boy nodded, the doctor waved Max outside. He took several steps away from Nate’s bed before saying, “Your girlfriend is a champ.”

  Girlfriend. The word echoed in Max’s head for a second.

  “She’s already given a pint of blood, and insisted on staying in there—” he threw a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the room down the hall “—until we’re sure Nate’s out of the woods.”

  Max’s heart thumped with gratitude…and more. “‘Champ’ doesn’t even begin to describe her.” Then he added, “She’ll be okay, won’t she? I mean, she’s barely bigger than a minute herself.”

  Dr. Prentice dropped a hand on Max’s shoulder. “Relax. She’s petite but strong as an ox.” He headed toward the O.R. at the opposite end of the hall. “You can go as far as those stainless-steel doors. There’s a nice waiting room right across the way. I’ll send a nurse to update you from time to time, and I’ll be out to talk to you as soon as we’re finished.”

  The surgeon had already given Max a detailed explanation of what would happen once those stainless-steel doors closed. If all went well, he’d said, Nate would be in the recovery room in an hour—two, tops.

  When he’d learned about the hole in his boy’s heart, Max thought the world would surely end; a four-year-old, enduring major surgery! Though the first operation had been a success, he’d always wondered when the other boot would drop, as his mom was so fond of saying. Now it had. “It had better go well this time,” he said to himself.

  Because if it didn’t…

  Max couldn’t finish the thought. Life without Nate was simply unthinkable.

  Lily held the velvety petals of a long-stemmed red rose to her cheek and, smiling, closed her eyes to inhale its delicate fragrance. This latest delivery had arrived shortly after breakfast, and now stood among other gifts she’d received in the week since Nate’s operation.

  She tucked the flower into the cut-glass vase nestled among shiny brass pots and colorful ceramic containers overflowing with the deep-green leaves of English Ivy, philodendron, and dumb cane blended with assorted mini-palms, and vases of chrysanthemums that filled the window seat in her room. Rooting through empty brown-pleated wrappers in the bottom of the candy box that had come with the roses, she searched for a chocolate-covered cherry. Finding none, Lily settled for a chewy caramel.

  Sitting cross-legged on the plush Persian rug blanketing the hardwood floor, she fingered the lovely bracelet glistening on her wrist. A series of Xs and Os, each golden link caught and reflected the sun, flecking the carpet with sparks of amber and shards of bronze.

  Every gift arrived by special courier, each messenger bearing a pastel-enveloped card. None of those preprinted verses for Max Sheridan! He preferred the blank-inside kind, so he could spell out his sentiments in strong, bold pen strokes.

  Lily read what had accompanied the bracelet: “Your friendship is more valuable to me than all the gold on earth,” he’d written. The one that came with the last box of candy said, “You are sweeter than any candy a confectioner could dream up.” Asked to choose her favorite, Lily would probably grow dizzy trying to decide!

  She called after opening each gift, to thank him, to tell him how unnecessary the gifts were, but always got the answering machine instead of Max. Probably at the hospital, she’d told herself, keeping Nate company. Still, it hadn’t been easy, swallowing her disappointment. She missed him, more than she’d imagined it possible to miss another human being.

  She thought of the way he’d held her, there in the hospital waiting room, of the way he had eased her into a gentle kiss. Nothing in the thousands of dreams she’d had over the years could begin to compare with the real thing. For the first time since they’d met, Lily felt at peace, felt as though the Lord had heard and answered her prayers. Because surely that loving, tender kiss was proof that Max felt more than mere friendship toward her.

  Lily sighed moonily as something drew her back to the card she’d found among crisp sheets of green tissue in the box of roses: “Red, like the lifesaving blood you shared with Nate.” Her smile vanished like smoke as hot tears welled in her eyes. Why hadn’t she realized it before: The hug, the kiss, every one of these gifts had been inspired by gratitude, and nothing more!

  What a fool she’d been, reading more into his actions and his words than he’d intended. Hands trembling, she stuffed the card back into its pink envelope and tossed it onto the pile with other rainbow-hued cards and thanked God that she hadn’t been able to reach Max directly. Because wouldn’t she look like a silly little twit if she admitted her feelings, and put Max on the spot!

  Wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands, she got to her feet and hurried to the barn. She’d encounter no heartbreaking realizations there, no dashed hopes or misguided conceptions. Just the natural appreciation that came when she fed a hungry baby bird or changed a horse’s soiled bandage. Her animals didn’t expect kindness or generosity. Though some had experienced the pain and horror of neglect or abuse, they’d learned the hard way that disappointment was the other side of the coin.

  Over time, she’d taught them that the sound of water bubbling into a stainless-steel bucket meant a fresh drink, that the sight of her big red-plastic grain scoop meant a full feed bag. Wouldn’t hurt to take a lesson from them for a change, Lily told herself.

  Long ago, she’d adopted a strict mind-set, and never allowed herself to deviate from it: Expect the worst; if it happens, you can say ‘I told you so!’, and if it doesn’t, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

  Missy trotted beside her from the house to the out-building, russet ears keeping time to every paw-beat. Lily crouched beside her, scritch-scratched the thick neck fur. “Starting right now,” she said, kissing the bridge of Missy’s nose, “we go back to base zero.”

  First, because Max had more than enough on his mind, with Nate and Georgia so soon out of the hospital, without having to worry or feel guilty about whatever harebrained idea she’d gleaned from his actions.

  And second, she was tired of hoping and praying for something that, experience had taught her, simply wasn’t going to happen.

  Chapter Six

  Since donating blood for Nate’s surgery, Lily hadn’t felt like her usual energetic self. But she’d promised to bake brownies for the church bazaar, and gave the pastor’s wife her word to man the “goodies booth” from noon �
�til three.

  “I’m surprised to see you here,” Lily said stiffly.

  “Mom wanted to come and she isn’t ready to go out on her own just yet.” Max put a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table. “She’s plenty ready for baking, though,” he said, smiling.

  Of course you wouldn’t set foot in a church without being forced to! Lily thought. “Where’s Nate?”

  “Outside, on the playground.”

  His furrowed brow told Lily she hadn’t done a very good job of hiding her feelings. Instinctively, she wanted to ease his discomfort.

  “And Georgia?” She glanced around again.

  He nodded toward the curtained stage in the church basement, where his mom and her beau sat, holding hands as they chatted with friends. “Robert offered to bring her, but since Nate wanted to come, too, I didn’t see any point making the man go out of his way.”

  “Robert, eh?” She quirked an eyebrow. “Things are pretty cozy between them, I take it.”

  Max shrugged. “I expect to hear any day now that the ol’ boy has popped the question.” He punctuated the statement with a ragged sigh.

  Frowning, Lily clucked her tongue. “You make it sound like he’s about to be escorted to a prison camp!”

  “Well, he’s been footloose and fancy-free for a couple of decades.” Another shrug. “Guess the ‘grass is greener’ adage fits.”

  She crossed both arms over her chest. “Oh, really. And why is that?”

  “He thinks married life will be better than bachelorhood.” Max chuckled bitterly. “I thought so, too…a lifetime ago. If I had an ounce of decency in me, I’d take him aside, tell him some stories that’d make him think twice.”

  Lily lifted her chin a notch. “If I know your mom, she’ll spoil him rotten,” she snapped. Just because Max’s experience with marriage had been miserable didn’t mean every married man would end up miserable. But what did she care about his opinion on husbands and wives and matrimony?